1. PSY 369: Psycholinguistics A Crash Course in Linguistic Theory

2. Hello there! Multiple levels of analysis Word order important (don’t say “There Hello!”) Each word composed of a sequence of sounds Sentence is uttered in a particular tone of voice (signified by the “!”, rather than a “Hello there?”) Used to signal particular part of a social interaction (would say it at the beginning of the interaction, not when leaving or in the middle)

3. Levels of analysis Phonology Morphology Syntax Semantics Pragmatics language structure pragmaticsuse grammar meaning (semantics) medium of transmission phoneticsphonologymorphology syntax lexicondiscourse For another way of representing this, see your book’s Figure 1.1 pg 6

4. Levels of analysis Phonology Morphology Syntax Semantics Pragmatics language structure pragmaticsuse grammar meaning (semantics) medium of transmission phoneticsphonologymorphology syntax lexicondiscourse

5. Phonology The sounds of a language Phonemes, allophones & phones Phonemesallophones phones Phonemes - abstract (mental) representations of the sound units in a language Allophones - different sounds that get categorized as the same phoneme Phones - a general term for the sounds used in languages Rules about how to put the sounds together Includes sound structures like syllables, onsets, rhymes

6. Phonology Listen to the ‘p’ sound pill spill [p h ] [p] Rule: If /p/ is used in word initial position you add aspiration (a puff of air), if word internal don’t aspirate /p/ allophonesphonemes

7. Finding phonemes Substitution and minimal pairsminimal pairs Take a word (e.g, "tie" /taI/) and find the words that share the same sequence /aI/, but contrast at their beginnings. If the switch in initial sound changes the meaning, it is evidence of separate phonemes pie, buy, tie, die, sigh, lie, my, guy, why, shy Gives us /p/ /b/ /t/ /d/ /s/ /l/ /m/ /g/ /w/ /sh/

8. Articulatory features Point of articulation Six major points: Larynx, soft palate, tongue body, tongue tip,tongue root, lips Manner How the articulator moves: nasality, aspiration, etc. Configuration of other organs Voiced, rounded, etc.

9. Phonology /b/ /p/ /d//t/ + voice- voice bilabial alveolar see mixed features

10. Phonemes:articulatory features Manner of Articulation Stopsvoiced unvoiced Fricatives Affricates Nasals Liquids lateral nonlateral Glides voiced unvoiced voiced unvoiced voiced BilabialLabiodental (inter)dentalAlveolar PalatalVelar Glottal Place of articulation front --------------------------------> back p b f v t d k g n l r y w m h s z full chart Symbols and sounds See Table 2.3 of textbook, pg 32

11. Phonemes Languages differ in two ways (with respect to phonology) – the set of segments that they employ. English has about 40 phonemes Polynesian has ~11 Hawaiian (Hawaiian pronunciation) Polynesian HawaiianHawaiian pronunciation Khoisan (‘Bushman’) has ~141 (listen to clicks) Khoisan listen to clicks - the set of phonological rules

12. Phonological Rules Some non-words are “legal” and some are not – “spink” is okay – “ptink” isn’t – (but notice that apt is, as is captain) – In English the segment /pt/ isn’t acceptable in the word initial position

13. Psychological reality of phonemes Miller & Nicely (1955) Participants were presented phonemes embedded in white noise. When they made mistakes, confusions between phonemes which varied by one feature were more common than those that varied by two features /b/ /p/ /t//d/

14. Psychological reality of phonemes Liberman et al (1957) categorical perception of phonemes Liberman et al (1957) Presented consonant-vowel syllables along a continuum The consonants were /b/, /d/, and /g/, followed by /a/ for example, /ba/. Asked whether two syllables were the same or different Participants reported Various forms of /ba/ to be the same Whereas /ga/ and /ba/ were easily discriminated. - Some similar demos can be found hereSome similar demos can be found here

15. Levels of analysis Phonology Morphology Syntax Semantics Pragmatics language structure pragmaticsuse grammar meaning (semantics) medium of transmission phoneticsphonologymorphology syntax lexicondiscourse

16. Morphology Morpheme – smallest unit that conveys meaning yes un- -happi- -ness horse- -s talk- -ing no internal morphological structure /y/, /e/, /s/ none have meaning in isolation unhappiness horses talking happy, horse, talk un-negative -nessstate/quality -s plural -ingduration

17. Morphology Morpheme Productivity Free morphemes: can stand alone as words Bound morphemes: can not stand alone as words Affixes, pre-fixes, suffixes, infixesinfixes Inflectional rules used to express grammatical contrasts in sentences e.g., singular/plural, past/present tense Derivational rules Construction of new words, or change grammatical class e.g., drink --> drinkable, infect --> disinfect

18. Phonology & morphology interaction Allomorphs: different variations of the same morpheme Plural rule in English The plural morpheme takes the form: /-iz/ If the last sound in a noun is a sibilant consonant “churches” /-z/ if the last sound in a noun is voiced “labs” /-s/ if the last sound in a noun is voiceless “bets”

19. Morphology Language differences Isolating languages: no endings, just word order (e.g., Chinese & Vietnamese) Inflecting: lots of inflections (e.g., Latin & Greek) In Classic Greek every verb has 350 forms Agglutinating languages (e.g., Turkish, Finnish, Eskimo) Eskimo: angyaghllangyugtuq = he wants to acquire a big boat Angya- ‘boat’; -ghlla- ‘augmentative meaning’; -ng- ‘acquire’; -yug- ‘expresses desire’; -tuq- third person singular

20. Psychological reality of Morphology Speech errors Stranding errors: The free morpheme typically moves, but the bound morpheme stays in the same location they are Turking talkish (talking Turkish) you have to square it facely (face it squarely) Morpheme substitutions a timeful remark (timely) Where's the fire distinguisher? (Where's the fire extinguisher?) Morpheme shift I haven't satten down and writ__ it (I haven't sat down and written it) what that add__ ups to (adds up to)

21. Psychological reality of Morphology Wug test (Gleason, 1958) Wug test Here is a wug.Now there are two of them. There are two _______.

22. Levels of analysis Phonology Morphology Syntax Semantics Pragmatics language structure pragmaticsuse grammar meaning (semantics) medium of transmission phoneticsphonologymorphology syntax lexicondiscourse

23. Syntax: the ordering of the words A dog bites a man.

24. Syntax: the ordering of the words A dog bites a man. A man bites a dog. Same words, but different word order leads to a radically different interpretation

25. Syntax: the ordering of the words A dog bites a man. A man bites a dog. A dog was bitten by a man. Not just the linear ordering It is the underlying set of syntactic rules

26. Syntax: the ordering of the words The underlying structural position, rather than surface linear position matters.

27. Syntactic Ambiguity (wiki)wiki The same linear order (surface structure) may be ambiguous with respect to the underlying structure Good shotHow he got into my pajamas I’ll never know – Groucho Marx shot an elephant in his pajamas

28. Syntactic Ambiguity

29. Generative Grammar (wiki)wiki The pieces: – Grammatical features of words Dog: Noun Bite: Verb – Phrase structure rules - these tell us how to build legal structures S --> NP VP ( a sentence consists of a noun phrase followed by a verb phrase ) VP --> V (NP) NP --> (A) (ADJ) N

30. Generative Grammar Recursion: you can embed structures within structures NP --> (A) (ADJ) N (PP) PP --> Prep NP So we NP’s can be embedded within PP’s which in turn may be embedded within NP’s. The dog with the bone of the dinosaur from the cave with the paintings of the animals with fur bit the man. The result is an infinite number of syntactic structures from a finite set of pieces

31. Chomsky’s Linguistics Chomsky proposed that grammars could be evaluated at three levels: Chomsky Observational adequacy Must be able to predict acceptable and unacceptable sentences Descriptive adequacy Explain how sentences with similar meanings are related (e.g., active and passive sentences) Explanatory adequacy Must be able to explain how languages are acquired and the similarities and differences across languages (language universals)

32. Transformational grammar Chomsky (1957, 1965) Two stages phrase structures for a sentence Build Deep Structure Build from phrase structure rules One constituent at a time Convert to Surface Structure Built from transformations that operate on the deep structure Adding, deleting, moving Operate on entire strings of constituents S --> NP VP VP --> V (NP) NP --> (A) (ADJ) N

33. Transformational grammar 1 deep structure, 2 surface structures: Active/passive sentences: The man bit the dog. The dog was bitten by the man. 2 deep structures, 1 surface structure: Groucho Marx shot an elephant in pajamas Passive transformation rule: NP 1 + V + NP 2 ---> NP 2 + be + V + -en + by + NP 1

34. Psychological reality of syntax Derivational theory of complexity The more transformations, the more complex The boy was bitten by the wolf The boy was bitten. (involves deletion) No evidence for more processing of the second sentence

35. Psychological reality of syntax Derivational theory of complexity The more transformations, the more complex The boy was bitten by the wolf The boy was bitten. (involves deletion) No evidence for more processing of the second sentence Evidence for (trace) Some recent evidence or reactivation of moved constituent at the trace position

36. Transformational grammar in the garage S NPVP NPVPPP Deep structureSurface structure The car was put(trace) NPVP NPVPPP S in the garagethe carwas put Movement transformation probe Some “activation” of car

37. Psychological reality of syntax Derivational theory of complexity The more transformations, the more complex The boy was bitten by the wolf The boy was bitten. (involves deletion) No evidence for more processing of the second sentence Evidence for (trace) Some recent evidence or reactivation of moved constituent at the trace position Evidence for syntax Syntactic priming

38. The ghost sold the werewolf a flower  Bock (1986), Task: If you hear a sentence, repeat it, if you see a picture describe it Syntactic priming The girl gave the teacher the flowers

39. The ghost sold a flower to the werewolf  Bock (1986) Syntactic priming The girl gave the flowers to the teacher

40. a: The ghost sold the werewolf a flower b: The ghost sold a flower to the werewolf  Bock (1986) Syntactic priming b: The girl gave the flowers to the teacher a: The girl gave the teacher the flowers

41. Levels of analysis Phonology Morphology Syntax Semantics Pragmatics language structure pragmaticsuse grammar meaning (semantics) medium of transmission phoneticsphonologymorphology syntax lexicondiscourse

42. Semantics The study of meaning Arbitrariness Words are not the same as meaning Words are symbols linked to mental representations of meaning (concepts) Even if we changed the name of a rose, we wouldn’t change the concept of what a rose is “What’s in a name? that which we call a rose By any other name would smell as sweet.”

43. Separation of word and meaning Concepts and words are different things Translation argument Every language has words without meaning, and meanings without words e.g., transmogrify, wheedle, scalawag Imperfect mapping Multiple meanings of words e.g., ball, bank, bear Elasticity of meaning Meanings of words can change with context e.g., newspaper

44. Semantics Philosophy of meaning Sense and reference “The world’s most famous athlete.” “The athlete making the most endorsement income.” 2 distinct senses, 1 reference Now In the 90’s Over time the senses typically stay the same, while the references may change

45. Semantics Two levels of analysis (and two traditions of psycholinguistic research) Word level (lexical semantics) How do we store words? How are they organized? What is meaning? How do words relate to meaning? Sentence level (compositional semantics) How do we construct higher order meaning? How do word meanings and syntax interact?

46. Lexical Semantics Word level The (mental) lexicon: the words we know The average person knows ~60,000 words How are these words represented and organized? Dictionary definitions? Necessary and sufficient features? Lists of features? Networks?

47. Word and their meanings “John is a bachelor.” What does bachelor mean? What if John: is married? is divorced? has lived with the mother of his children for 10 years but they aren’t married? has lived with his partner Joe for 10 years?

48. Word and their meanings I’m going to give you a word. Write down the first word you think of in response to that word. CAT How are your words related to ‘cat’?

49. Lexical Ambiguity What happens when we use ambiguous words in our utterances? “Oh no, Lois has been hypnotized and is jumping off the bank!”

50. Money “bank” River “bank”

51. Lexical Ambiguity Psycholinguistic evidence suggests that multiple meanings are considered Debate: how do we decide which meaning is correct Based on: frequency, context Hmm… ‘bank’ usually means the financial institution, but Lois was going fishing with Jimmy today …

52. Compositional Semantics Phrase and sentence level Some of the theories Truth conditional semantics: meaning is a logical relationship between an utterance and a state of affairs in the world Truth conditional semantics Proposition: A relationship between two (or more) concepts Has a truth value Jackendoff’s semantics Jackendoff’s Concepts are lists of features, images, and procedural knowledge Conceptual formation rules Cognitive grammar Mental models - mental simulations of the world

53. Levels of analysis Phonology Morphology Syntax Semantics Pragmatics language structure pragmaticsuse grammar meaning (semantics) medium of transmission phoneticsphonologymorphology syntax lexicondiscourse

54. Pragmatics Sentences do more than just state facts, instead they are uttered to perform actions How to do things with words (J. L. Austin, 1955 lectures) Using registers Conversational implicatures Speech acts

55. Pragmatics Registers: How we modify conversation when addressing different listeners Determine our choice of wording or interpretation based on different contexts and situations Speech directed at babies, at friends, at bosses, at foreigners

56. Pragmatics Conversational implicatures Speakers are cooperativecooperative Grice’s conversational maximsconversational maxims Quantity: say only as much as is needed Quality: say only what you know is true Relation: say only relevant things Manner: Avoid ambiguity, be as clear as possible

57. Pragmatics Speech acts: How language is used to accomplish various ends Direct speech acts Open the window please. Clean up your room! Indirect speech acts “It is hot in here” “Your room is a complete mess!” Non-literal language use e.g., Metaphors and idioms

58. Pyscholinguistics and pragmatics Three-stage theory Stage 1: compute the literal interpretation of the utterance Stage 2: evaluate the interpretation against assumptions Grice’s conversational maxims Stage 3: if interpretation doesn’t seem correct, derive (or retrieve) non-literal interpretation

59. Pyscholinguistics and pragmatics One stage approaches Evaluate utterance at multiple levels simultaneously and select the appropriate one Use context to derive the single most-likely interpretation

60. Language is complex Even though it feels simple to produce and understand language, it is a very complex behavior language structure pragmaticsuse grammar meaning (semantics) medium of transmission phoneticsphonologymorphology syntax lexicondiscourse